This invention relates generally to ammunition reloading machines and, more particularly, to a rotary bullet feeder assembly and a toolhead assembly for enhancing the operation of such ammunition reloading machines.
Reloading one's ammunition began years ago in an effort by shooters to research and develop special ammunition, rather than settle for off-the-shelf ammo. An ammunition cartridge includes a cartridge case, a primer, a charge of smokeless powder, and a bullet. After a cartridge has been fired and discharged, it cannot be reused. As a result, those who frequent the shooting ranges accumulate buckets of used empty brass cartridge cases. In the early days, cartridge reloading was accomplished by a time consuming handload process. This process involved 1) resizing the used empty cases so that they will again fit into the firearm chamber; 2) removing the old primer from the case; 3) cleaning the case; 4) reforming the mouth of the case to accept a new bullet; 5) installing a new primer; 6) weighing a charge of smokeless powder; 7) filling the case using a special funnel and powder pan; 8) installing the new bullet to a specific loaded length; and 9) crimping the case mouth around the bullet if required by the type of ammunition being reloaded. Until the mid-1970's, most companies in the ammunition reloading industry produced only handloading products that included single stage presses, reloading die sets, powder scales, case preparation tools, and cleaning kits. While effective, these products permitted reloading of only a single cartridge case at a time. Thus, it took hours to prepare and reload a box of cartridges.
With the rapid growth of competition shooting in the early 1980's came a new era in ammunition reloading known as “progressive reloading.” Progressive reloading machines enabled competition shooters and weekend hobby shooters to reload large quantities of ammunition fast and accurately. The progressive reloading machines simultaneously performed many of the separate operations of handloading. Each complete cycle of the operating handle of one of these machines produces a finished round of ammunition. Representative of the progressive reloading machines on the market today is the XL650 manufactured by Dillon Precision Products. The XL650 is a five-station reloading machine that provides automatic casefeed in advance of station one. A hopper holds 100-200 empty cartridge cases that are conveyed into a columnar feed tube by an electric motor. When the operating handle of the XL650 is moved downward, a platform travels upward, moving the cartridge cases up to the reloading dies. At the same time, a cam-activated casefeed mechanism transfers one empty case from the feed tube to station one. Station one resizes the case and removes the spent primer. At station two, the case mouth is prepared to accept a new bullet, and a charge of powder is automatically dispensed into the case. A primer feed system, adjacent to station two, holds up to 100 new primers in a metal feed tube. A cam and lever mechanism rotates the primer feed wheel, thereby advancing a new primer below the shellplate into the station two position. Station three is an inspection stage, at which the dispensed powder is checked. At station four, a new bullet manually placed on the case mouth is seated into the cartridge case. At final station five, the case mouth is crimped around the bullet. Next, the handle of the reloading machine is returned to its original rest position, moving the platform downward. At the same time, the circular shellplate, which holds five cartridge cases, rotates automatically, advancing the group of cartridge cases to the next station. An empty cartridge case moves down a track and into station one. At the same time, the cartridge case advancing to station two receives a new primer upon its arrival. The cartridge case with a new primer advances to station three. That cartridge case then advances to station four, at which the operator manually places a new bullet on the mouth of the cartridge case. The cartridge case with the bullet installed then advances to station five. After the mouth of the cartridge case has been crimped around the bullet at station five, the completed cartridge is ejected out of the shellplate for travel down a ramp and into a collection bin. All of the previously described reloading steps occur during movement of the reloading machine handle from a rest position downward to a stop position, at which movement is paused to permit insertion of a primer into the cartridge case at station two. Also, while at the stop position, a bullet is manually placed on the mouth of the cartridge case at station four, following which the handle is moved upward to return it to its rest position, thereby completing the cartridge reloading process.
While progressive reloading machines represent a significant labor saving over previous handloading, they still require manual placement of a bullet on the mouth of each cartridge as it arrives at the appropriate machine station. Not only is this task time consuming and very tedious during a session in which several hundred cartridge cases are being reloaded, but operators of these machines invariably suffer pinched fingers caused by even the slightest delay in removing them before the cartridge case mouth crimping action takes place. In addition, the use of existing progressive reloading machines becomes even more time consuming for those operators who don't have the use of their left hand or arm and are therefore forced to use the right hand and arm for both operation of the machine handle and manual placement of a bullet on the mouth of each cartridge case as it is reloaded.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide rotary bullet feeder and toolhead assemblies for use with commercially available progressive cartridge reloading machines that serve to automatically deliver properly-oriented bullets to the seating die position thereof.
In accordance with one illustrated preferred embodiment of the present invention, a rotary bullet feeder assembly randomly collects hoppered bullets in a desired orientation in a multiplicity of bullet pockets formed along the peripheral edge of a rotating bullet feed ring. An arcuate bullet wall prevents gravitational release of the bullets contained in the bullet pockets until each of the bullet pockets, in turn, reaches the apex point along its circular route of travel, at which point an opening in the bullet wall allows a bullet to fall into a bullet guide for gravitational descent to a bullet exit opening in the bullet guide.
In accordance with a further illustrated preferred embodiment of the present invention, bullets exiting the rotary bullet feeder assembly are delivered to a toolhead assembly employed in a conventional, commercially available progressive cartridge reloading machine. The toolhead assembly includes a toolhead plate for receiving the rotary bullet feeder assembly and a flat circular bullet feedwheel mounted for rotation on the underside of the toolhead plate. The bullet feedwheel includes a plurality of bullet feed holes equidistantly arranged in a circle proximate the peripheral edge of the bullet feedwheel. An indexing mechanism, positioned beneath the bullet feedwheel, serves to incrementally rotate or index the bullet feedwheel in response to each user actuation of the handle of the cartridge reloading machine. Each incremental indexing rotation of the bullet feedwheel serves to sequentially advance the position of each bullet feed hole containing a bullet received from the rotary bullet feeder assembly into alignment with a conventional seating die positioned in the toolhead plate.
The combination of the rotary bullet feeder assembly and the toolhead assembly of the present invention eliminates the time-consuming and otherwise disadvantageous need for manually placing a correctly oriented bullet on the mouth of each cartridge case to be reloaded, as has been required by cartridge reloading machines in the past.